


another conversation

by Love_Me_Dead



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Team as Family, and sometimes family argues, i really dont want jt to come off as an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24540829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Love_Me_Dead/pseuds/Love_Me_Dead
Summary: Malcolm and Dani have a heart-to-heart.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	another conversation

**Author's Note:**

> so my dear friend [Ali](https://luna-colorata.tumblr.com) and I went back and forth on an idea of JT upsetting Malcolm with his physical resemblance to Malcolm's schoolyard bullies and we vibed on it, and then this happened! The title is vaguely borrowed from Florence + the Machine's "St. Jude"
> 
> Trigger warning for mentions of domestic abuse and bullying! Please tread carefully.

It was a long day. Tensions were already high in the conference room as the three of them shuffled through papers and files and followed up on leads. Malcolm spent his time pacing, staring at the white board, at the information they’d written there.

They were running close to midnight. Gil was somewhere else, running something down or dealing with administrative bullshit. Malcolm hadn’t heard - he was too busy trying to make the pieces fit and figure out why these people were dead, what they had in common, why they had died in the same way. All three bodies had their throats cut and then they were burned, as though the killer wanted to savour the kill and then wanted to destroy the evidence.

He kept glancing between the images of their corpses, burnt and charred beyond recognition, and the photos they’d found once the bodies had been identified through dental records. Driver’s license photos and a graduation portrait. Smiling, happy, alive.

“So all we have to do is figure out who’s throwing these people on a barbecue,” JT said. 

“I don’t think it was a barbecue,” Malcolm mumbled. “I think it was more of a fire pit. They were doused in accelerant beforehand, which makes sense - burning a body is very difficult. But usually this kind of impromptu cremation would mean we had a mass grave, and yet they were all taken to a different dump site.”

JT sighed. “Okay, so he grabs ‘em, and then takes them to kill them and torch them, and then dumps them somewhere else entirely?”

“Or, as you said, barbecue them.”

“Sounds like shame to me,” Dani said. “Burning, trying to destroy the evidence, and then all of the bodies were found half-buried.”

“Shame,” Malcolm echoed, leaning against the table and staring at the white board.

He clicked the pen in his hands. Spun it around his knuckles. Clicked it again. Silence fell over them. Malcolm repeated the actions with the pen. Click - spin - click. Click - spin - click.

“Can you stop with the clicking?” JT mumbled.

Malcolm didn’t hear him over the sound of his own thoughts. Click - spin - click.

“Bright.”

He knew there was a connection waiting to happen, two pieces of a puzzle about to click together. Click - spin - click. 

“ _ Bright _ .”

Click - spin - click. Was the burning an attempt to get rid of the evidence? Or was it a ritual? To hide what the killer had done, or hide the identity of the deceased? Click - spin - click.

“Dude, I can’t focus with that thing.”

Click - spin - click. Click - spin - click. Why would the cops care about their identities? They were not public figures, nor closely associated with one, but there had to be something else. 

“Bright!”

Click - spin - click. They hadn’t followed up with any of the families yet. Click - spin - click. Tattoos? Click - spin - click.

JT stood and crossed over to Bright, ripped the pen out of his hands and tossed it away. “Seriously!”

His train of thought disappeared and survival took over - Malcolm flinched hard and scrambled away from JT. He was built like a tank, square and tall, and he was the face of every boy who had ever stuffed Malcolm into a locker in middle school. He had the same voice, commanding and angry and deep at fourteen when Malcolm’s hadn’t dropped until he was much older.

He threw his hands over his head, his heart racing. He could hear, over the din of blood in his ears, JT calling his name and asking if he was okay as he stumbled backwards, blind, and bumped into the wall. 

And then, as he remembered he was thirty, it had been a decade since high school, embarrassment settled into the pit of his stomach. He lowered his arms and tried for a grin, though he knew it was shaky.

“Bright, are you okay?” JT asked. Softened, now. His hand reached out towards him but not quite touching him.

Malcolm’s hands shook and he ran one through his hair. “Yeah. Sorry. You scared me.”

“I’m sorry, dude,” he said. 

“I’m just going to get some air,” Malcolm mumbled.

Without a backwards glance, he strode out of the conference room. He ducked into the first supply closet he found and leaned heavily against the shelves, covering his face with his hands.

A hundred guys who had looked like JT, bigger guys who played sports and had fathers at home, had all taken their chance to bully Malcolm. And he knew that he was weird, always a little too obsessed with murder and too small for his age and he screamed in his sleep, but his days weren’t supposed to be nightmares.

His hands shook. He tried to remember the grounding exercises, the deep breathing techniques, but it was hard when the fear threatened to choke him.

The supply closet door opened and Malcolm flinched, fully prepared to leave with his tail between his legs as someone tried to grab a stack of printer paper or something. Instead, Dani came in. She stood next to him and took his hands, guided him to sit down on the floor.

“You okay?” She asked, sitting cross-legged in front of him.

Malcolm nodded, took a deep breath. “I knew I was being annoying. But I was… thinking about the case. And I thought I almost had something.”

Dani folded her hands in her lap. Malcolm noticed the way she squeezed her hands into a fist, her knuckles going white, her nails digging into her palm. 

“He… he looks like the guys who bullied me when I was younger,” he mumbled.

She nodded. “I figured it was something like that.”

Malcolm tipped his head back. He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“It makes sense.”

The shame would probably kill him first. Trapping himself in a supply closet only to be followed by his colleague was something a twelve year old would do.

“I get it,” Dani said. “That scared me, too.”

Malcolm let his breath out and sighed. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “You wouldn’t understand, though, until you’ve had two black eyes and a fat lip from a guy that looks just like that.”

Her demeanour shifted and she recoiled slightly, looking away from him. She bit down on her lip and nodded. “Yeah.”

He ran a hand through his hair. 

“When you’re ready, I’ll see you back in the conference room,” Dani said, standing. She shut the door behind her.

Malcolm took another five minutes in the supply closet and a quick trip to the bathroom before he went back to the conference room. JT was alone, poring over the case files, and he looked up.

“Hey, Bright, I want to apologize about earlier,” he said. “That wasn’t cool of me.”

Malcolm offered a smile. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’re fine.”

JT hesitated and nodded. “I’m really sorry.”

“I understand, you’re tired and it’s late and this case sucks. But next time just tap me on the shoulder or something. Works better.”

“Thanks, man.”

Malcolm glanced at the time. It was after midnight now, long after they were all meant to be home, and Dani’s coat and bag were gone.

“Gil’s in his office,” he said. “Told us to wrap it up and go home. Dani left already.”

Dani had promised that she would come back, that Malcolm would see her in the conference room once he was ready. And she wasn’t here.

“She went home?” Malcolm asked.

JT shrugged. “I guess so. Saw Gil on her way out, but she took her bag and her coat. It’s late.”

“Oh.”

“You should get home, too. We could all use some sleep.”

“Yeah. Goodnight,” Malcolm mumbled, turning around and knocking on Gil’s door.

Gil looked up from clearing his desk off and motioned for him to come in. “Hey, kid, I heard something happened with you and JT,” he said.

Malcolm sighed. “It was nothing,” he mumbled.

Gil raised his eyebrows, the look that said  _ sure _ . “Dani seemed upset.”

“What?” He frowned and the gears in his brain began to turn, to figure out  _ why _ .

“I think you should talk to her.”

Malcolm glanced at the time and nodded. She didn’t live far and if she’d just gotten home, she would still be awake. He turned on his heel, grabbed his coat, and fled to Dani’s apartment.

Instead of buzzing her apartment, Malcolm ducked behind someone who had unlocked the doors. She lived on the fifth floor and, rather than wait for the elevator with a chatty-looking middle-aged woman, he took the stairs. By the time he stood outside her door, he was short of breath and he wondered if this was actually a good idea.

Without taking another minute to think of it, he raised his fist and knocked on her door. He could hear her footfalls on the other side of the door, where she paused to peer through the peephole, and then the sliding of the security latch as she undid it.

She stood in front of him in sweatpants and a hoodie, her arms folded over her chest. She did not invite him in. “What are you doing here?” She asked.

“Gil said you were upset,” Malcolm said. “I think I upset you.”

She sighed and hesitated before she stepped back and beckoned him in. He stepped in and he did not bother shrugging out of his coat. He wasn’t sure how long he would stay and he was certain that he had already overstayed his welcome.

“I’m here to apologize,” Malcolm said.

Dani, her hair tied up on the top of her head, sat down on the couch, legs crossed underneath her. “I’m listening.”

Malcolm took a breath and nodded. “I was wrong and I was being selfish when I said that you wouldn’t understand. Of course violence is scary to anyone.” He squirmed under her gaze, feeling awkward standing in her living room while she sat on the couch. “I’m sorry.”

Dani patted the cushion next to her. “Come here.”

He sat down next to her, conscious of the fact that he was still wearing his coat and his shoes and she was wearing socks and sweats.

She took his hands and squeezed. Her hands were warm and recently lotioned, smelling of lavender and coconut. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

Malcolm nodded. He was not used to this intimacy - being in her apartment when she was ready for bed. 

“I want to tell you why,” she said. She maintained eye contact unflinchingly. 

He nodded and he did his best to not look away, even though he wanted to. He wanted to inspect all the pieces of decor in her apartment, but right now all that mattered was her.

“I was twenty when I moved in with my boyfriend,” Dani said. “He treated me like the best thing in the world. Worshipped the ground I walked on.”

Malcolm knew where this was going and he did not want to hear it. He did not want to picture Dani, twenty, younger than she was now, with bruises on her face and blood on her lips. 

“I need to tell you,” Dani whispered, her tone urgent as she recognized Malcolm’s discomfort.

He nodded. Just as she had told him that she had to bury her father when she was sixteen, she would tell him this story, and he would listen. 

She took a deep breath and Malcolm squeezed her hands. Her breath smelled of mint toothpaste. “I didn’t think it was a big deal when he pressured me into having sex when I didn’t want to. I didn’t think it was a big deal when he threw a vase when we had an argument. I didn’t think it was a big deal when he hit me for the first time.”

All Malcolm could do was hold her hands and listen.

“I missed work a lot. I nearly missed out on my undercover operation because of him. It’s weird, uh, Xavier saved me from him… in a really messed up way. And then, when that whole thing was over, I stayed with Gil for a long time. To get back on my feet.”

“Did you press charges?” 

Dani shook her head. “It would be so much work,” she said, looking up at the ceiling. “No, I never pressed charges. Gil promised that he would help me with it if I wanted to, but it was my word against his. It was the drug addicted black girl against an upstanding white man.”

Malcolm wanted to ask his name, wanted to pull strings in high society to find him and destroy him. But this was not his fight. 

“He died last year, anyway. Car accident.”

He let his breath out. Some kind of karmic justice, at the very least. Her abuser would never hurt anyone ever again.

“I’m sorry,” Malcolm whispered.

Dani nodded. “Thank you.”

“About all of it. Not just being an asshole earlier.”

Dani squeezed his hands again. “I know. And I’m sorry you got beat up at school.”

Malcolm shook his head. “It’s different,” he whispered. “I never trusted them.”

“Do you trust anyone?”

“I trust you.”

Dani softened and wrapped her arms around him, warm and soft. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He could smell coconut in her hair as he pulled her into him, arms wrapped around her waist. As she pulled away, he glanced at his watch. “It’s late,” he said softly. “I should get home.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “You can stay, if you want.”

“I don’t want to overstay.”

“I want you to stay.”

Malcolm nodded, even though he had nothing to change into. Dani smiled and stood, taking his hands and leading him down the hall to her bedroom. He was surprised that staying over meant sleeping in her bed, but he didn’t mind.

“Do you mind?” She asked quietly, peeling her sweatshirt off to reveal a loose-fitting t-shirt. “It’s been a long time since I’ve slept with anyone.”

Malcolm smirked and looked away.

Dani sighed and tossed her sweater at him. “You know what I mean!” She said. “In a bed. Not sexually.”

He pulled his tie off and undid his belt. “It’s fine,” he said. “Is it okay if I take off my shirt?”

She nodded and pulled the dark blue covers back. Malcolm unbuttoned his shirt, toed out of his shoes and removed his wallet and phone from his pockets before he laid down next to her. Dani took his hand and looked over at him in the darkness.

“Thank you.”

In the morning, Malcolm knew that he would show up to work at the same time as Dani, dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, and he knew that eyebrows would rise. But he didn’t care. Laid next to her, to his best friend, knowing that he could trust her with anything, he didn’t care.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think with kudos, comments or come chat on [my tumblr](https://bibright.tumblr.com)


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